He Just Wouldn't Stop
by ArtisteFish
Summary: Just because she's back doesn't mean there aren't scars. Some wounds take more than time to heal, and some never heal at all. A post-canon look at an unexpected repercussion of Kagome's three year absence.


He just wouldn't stop touching her.

The first week of being back, she hadn't noticed – she'd been all over him too.

But for him, it had just continued - and gotten worse.

Placing his hands on her shoulders, holding her elbow, touching her back, brushing fingers with her when their hands weren't even nearly in the same vicinity, crowding her as they walked and bumping into her too often for someone as spatially aware as he was….

It seemed there wasn't a moment of their new life together where some part of him wasn't in contact with some part of her.

It was getting excessive.

Once, as they were walking through the village under the orange sunlight, she felt her husband grab her wrist. She was more than happy to hold hands with him, but his hand was never static long enough for it to be a proper handhold.

He brushed her fingers, stroked her palm, traced her knuckles, circled her wrist, caressed her arm, and went back down to start the process over.

Kagome flushed.

He was starting to freak her out.

"Inuyasha…" she said hesitantly, and his nervous fingers stopped, his eyes wide and cheeks red as he met her gaze, trying desperately to keep the rest of his face neutral.

"What are you doing?"

She asked it kindly enough, her tone patient, but he sputtered and fumed, pulling his hand away to fold it across his chest with the other.

"What? C-can't I hold your hand? You like that kinda thing, don't you?"

She regarded him softly, recognizing his act for what it was – he was embarrassed, and she found her annoyance with him disappearing.

If he wanted to touch her… was she really going to complain?

With a smile she reached to unfold a hand and clasp it in her own, swinging their joined hands a little as she said "Of course you can. I'm sorry."

The death-grip he had on her hand was still a bit much, but Kagome decided to let it slide.

They could always talk about it later.

* * *

Soon months had passed since her return to the Feudal Era, and still he touched her constantly.

She was beginning to worry.

Back when they had traveled together, before the well had parted them, he had always been so hesitant to show any affection. A slight brush of her hand could send him into a blushing, stuttering wreck.

Sure they had gotten more comfortable with each other over time, but he wasn't naturally a 'touchy-feely' person.

So how was it that he now had wandering hands to rival Miroku's?

Who was this man who would grab her hand in public, who wouldn't eat unless she sat with him and their knees were touching, who would sometimes just grab strands of her hair as they walked and smell them?

What had happened to him?

He seemed obsessed.

She decided to ask one evening as they sat on their hill, gazing out at the stars.

There was a cool breeze that night, but Kagome couldn't feel it – she was wrapped so tightly in Inuyasha's embrace that she could hardly be seen. Her back was flush against his chest, his arms and legs wrapped around her form like vines, his head resting on the crook of her neck as he breathed in her scent.

"Inuyasha?"

"Hm?"

Suddenly she was nervous. She didn't want to embarrass him, but she wanted to know if something was wrong.

Had something changed between them?

"Are… you feeling alright? You've been kinda… different lately."

Inuyasha raised his head, and she craned her neck to face him.

He looked highly confused and slightly annoyed.

"What the heck are you talking about?"

She fidgeted.

"Well actually, it's not just lately – you've been acting… strange… for months. Ever since I came back."

He raised a dark eyebrow.

"Whaddaya mean 'strange'?"

"You keep touching me."

He just stared at her, and his face flushed, but with his usual bravado he huffed "Well duh, we're married. I have every right to touch you."

She sighed, and turned in his embrace to face him more fully.

"Yeah, but that's not what I'm talking about. I mean you're _constantly_ touching me. It's not that I don't want you to!" she said quickly, noting his flattened ears and kicked-puppy expression, "It's just… so unlike you."

He still looked slightly annoyed, but his temper had ebbed.

"Keh, I love you, okay? Don't you want me to show it?"

"… So… you rubbing my arm fat right now is showing your love?"

He froze.

His hand was indeed on her arm, where it had been gently massaging her bicep.

He jerked his hand away as if it burned, and stared at it in alarm.

"Inuyasha?"

He flinched and stared back at her, dropping his hand and shaking his head as he pulled her back against him.

"Sorry… I don't know what… I didn't mean… sorry."

"It's alright…."

Still very confused, but not eager to embarrass him further, Kagome settled against her husband's back and continued to watch the stars.

Over the next few days, Kagome paid close attention to her husband's actions.

Every time he would touch her, she would react. His name, a teasing comment, a giggle, a returned touch – something to show she was aware of what he was doing.

And every time she would do so, he would be startled or flinch, and sometimes he would look guilty or confused.

He seemed to be aware that he was doing _something_ out of the ordinary, and yet he couldn't seem to control it or stop.

His actions seemed almost… compulsive.

_Obsessive_ compulsive.

Kagome didn't normally like to apply modern terms to her life in the feudal era – they were such different worlds after all – but watching her husband squirm as he tried to retract his hand from her hair as they walked, she couldn't help but think he had one of the worst cases of OCD she'd ever seen.

And it pained her heart to think of what had caused it.

* * *

It was a lazy afternoon.

Nothing to harvest, no laundry to wash, their hut was clean, and it was too early to start dinner.

Inuyasha and Kagome sat curled up in the roots of the Sacred Tree, the thick boughs blocking the bright sun overhead and creating a canopy of privacy for the couple.

Kagome looked up at her husband from her spot in his lap, where she lay nestled on her side.

His eyes were closed, but his flicking ears told her he was still awake and alert as ever.

"Say – Inuyasha?"

He didn't open his eyes, but one of his ears swiveled in her direction – he was listening.

"You know I'm never going to leave you again, don't you?"

One eye cracked open, and he stared down at her uncertainly.

"What brought this on?"

"I just…" she wasn't really sure what to say. She knew how sensitive his ego could be, and she didn't want him to mistake her concern for, well… _concern_.

"I just want to make sure you know that. Okay?"

He held her tighter, saying gruffly "Idiot… of course I know that. It's not like I was worrying about it."

But then his hand was touching the side of her stomach, tracing circles over the scar he knew was there - the faint scar of where the Shikon Jewel had been torn from her body on their first meeting - and she could tell he was lying.

Kagome held back a sad sigh – she knew a coping mechanism when she saw one, but there was really nothing she could do about it.

She was no therapist – she didn't know how to treat psychoses, or even how to help alleviate them, and people of this time didn't even know they existed.

She wanted more than anything to reassure and calm her troubled husband, but she would just have to do so through her own methods.

And the only thing she knew to do was to love him.

Reaching up, she grabbed one of his silky ears and gave it a light tug.

"Hey!"

She giggled, but she didn't let go, and he didn't pull away – he knew what was coming.

Ever so gently she stroked and massaged his ear, smiling as he closed his eyes and fought back a blush.

She loved his ears, and though he would never openly admit it, _he_ loved that _she_ loved them.

He lulled his head towards her, and Kagome obligingly reached up to grab his other ear, giving it the same treatment.

He growled softly, contentedly, lowering his head to rest against her collarbone as he breathed in her scent.

She paused, her eyes misting over as a wave of love swept over her for her half-demon, and she let go of his ears to wrap her arms around his head, holding him in the crook of her neck.

"Inuyasha, I'm so sorry…" she said thickly, her throat closing as she fought back tears.

He made a small sound of confusion, but she continued, managing to choke out "I'm sorry I was gone for so long… I'm so sorry I left you."

He didn't respond, but his arms tightened, almost painfully, around her middle, and he took a long, deep drag on the aromatic smell of her skin.

She held him for a while longer, and he was so still she thought maybe he had fallen asleep, but suddenly she heard his rough voice, and his words cut her heart open all over again.

"Don't ever do that again. Just… don't ever leave me… please."

Then his hands were all over her – the curve of her bottom, her legs, her heels and the pads of her feet and her toes, the arch of her back and her shoulder blades – he needed to know she was there, every part of her, and that she would _always_ be there.

She let him touch her, and she touched him back, just so he knew – so he would always know – that she was there, and always would be, and he didn't have to worry alone.

He would never _be_ alone again.

And she would put up with _this_ strange behavior and _more_ to make him realize that.

* * *

*Author's Note:

Just a drabbley thing that happened to me while waiting around during a class break.

Someone on Tumblr mentioned how Inuyasha probably developed some level of PTSD after all the crap he went through in those last few episdoes/chapters – having Kikyo die and then NOT LONG AFTER THAT, losing his soulmate Kagome in the meido for three days and then losing her to the other side of the well for THREE FRIGGIN' YEARS with NO assurance that he'd EVER see her again… that can't NOT have messed him up in some way.

Not that I don't think Kagome was affected, but she had her family and school to keep her busy and provide some kind of distraction.

Inuyasha had friends who were all carrying on with their lives and being happy together.

And he was without his person who made him the happiest.

And we don't know how often Kagome visited the well (it _is_ on her property I guess…) but the fact that Inuyasha went to the well every three days EVEN AFTER THREE YEARS HAD PASSED AND NOTHING HAD CHANGED….. it just kills me. _He_ kills me. _THEY_ kill me.

But anyways, everything I know about OCD and PTSD I learned from Wikipedia and reality TV, which I dislike, but I've seen because my sisters watch it. Wikipedia says you can get OCD from traumatic events, so I went with that. So sorry if it's not accurate, but…. It's a fanfic. I'm not getting paid for this.

Thanks for the read! :3


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